Obviously native applications will be faster but without missing the point surely Those applications can work under Linux relatively easily. The low level stuff will still work and the gp32libs seem very simple.
There is an overhead from having an OS running, but one of my points is that it is not useful to run with all the bells and whistles available. It would be nonsense to run (albeit fun) to use the gp32 as a web server. The size of the OS itself is surely very small by its nature. The GP32 has very little hardware to it. I can´t believe considering Linux still runs on amiga´s and other computers with much less memory than this.
Sorry I said I am missing the point, maybe I was expecting a BIOS replacement, The whole operating system(not X not all the gnu utilities but the kernel=Linux) would fit in the BIOS.
What would work and what would not work well I suspect all the programs what work comfortably on Linux on a 486sx 33mhz with 8meg of memory. Unix was designed for computers an awful lot slower than this. There are
Distributions designed to run in 2mb of memory On ARM devices.
My confusion comes from understanding what GP32Linux *is* my understanding was Linux(the kernel and the only bit I´m initially interested in) is just a way of manages the machine’s hardware resources and its main job is to manage the file system, and system memory. gp32linux as I barely understand it does manage at least the file system. The gp32´s own embedded OS seems to do this(I just don´t know I´m guessing based only on the fact that the gp32 is just a fast processor that does everything)
The BIOS which may need re-writing it is just a way of the OS accessing the hardware I think the lines are more blurred with the GP32 because the OS/BIOS are combined as one in the firmware.
One of my main criticisms of the gp32 is the file system its fat12 which as file systems go is pretty inefficient for many reasons. Vfat which allows long filenames(one of the things I thing everyone who likes to have filenames longer that 8.3 characters will appreciate and in my opinion a major drawback of the gp32). As far as I understand it I see no reason why if a floppy can be formatted with in variety of formats why smart media cards can´t. I know there is dedicated hardware that can be used to do this, but a device like the gp32 probably does not have it for cost reasons(big chip).
You could replace fat12 with ntfs in Linux. I have suggested two file systems which would be quite useful, because of the benefits the would bring.
Reiserfsbecause its fast a lot faster whether this would benefit a solid state device is a different matter, and its very efficient at fitting small files on a device with little/no space wastage. Unlike fat so 128mb of files fit on a 128mb smart media card instead of 80mb of files(although this would not benefit movie files as much as it would those with lots of little games).
Squashfsbecause if you are going to fit GNU utilities x server hell samba/apache or more likely a ftp server(You can not look at the gp32 as a USB drive even with protodrive at the moment as I said I using windows98 just to connect to my gp32) on there you want it as small as possible. In fact you want all the programs compressed that are part of the OS.
I mentioned a browser I chose one that did not use X because that is an overhead of the console(black screen you remember from your msdos days). Was
Links because it does not need the overhead of X. I mention the browser because I want my gp32 for games, and one of the things I have seen mentioned is a browser. I selected the most appropriate in my opinion If it is appropriate at all.
So the games I mention happypengiun(or happypuppy as I mistakenly called it) this is just
The Linux Game Tome which has stacks of games including games(most) that run without X (which is a large overhead) run at(or around) the gp32s native resolution(320 x 240).
Do the nature of emulation on the gp32 and the nature of the storage capacity I want to use
Goodmerge/7z the libaries are available and could be setup to be used quite easily, The benefit Linux would bring in doing this would be great.
I also mention the
Matchbox project because if the desire is to have an x server these guys do the windows manager right! I think it speaks for itself.
There are small x servers like
Smallx already and damn good one s I cant understand why anyone would create a new one. If one at all.
Games that do not use the overhead of x in Linux use the
Frame buffer console there are other libaries
svgalib and the
General Graphics Interface not used as much but still widely available without the overhead of X. And Frame buffer console not just for games
Mplayer uses it will it be as fast as gpcinema. It does compile on the arm chip and can read files in many formats, and is a damn sight more useful than a browser.
In summary I can see from what could be a truly open source device (the reason I bought the gp32 in the first place) are enormous). think this page and the
screenshots say it all esp when compared with the
screenshots from gp32linu. This page goes points out a lot of the packages possible on the gp32 look at the specs it shows me what gp32linux could be

. My question is it isn´t. Its not even close this could be revolutionary for the gp32 but its not.